shatter

ed by a series of explosions over the last five days. A hundred and fifty miles to the south in Tokyo, radiation fears are growing fast. At Tokyo station this afternoon, hundreds of people rushed to board bullet trains heading south to Osaka and beyond.

The International Committee of the Red Cross says it's had to

withdraw

from Benghazi amid fears an attack on the town by Libyan government forces is now

imminent

. In a statement issued by ICRC in Geneva, the organisation said it remained extremely concerned about the fate of civilians of the sick and of the wounded and called on all sides to protect them. Imogen Foulkes reports from Geneva.

The International Committee of the Red Cross is often the first humanitarian organisation into a conflict zone and the last to leave. It had teams in Benghazi and other areas of eastern Libya, but it never, despite repeated requests, received security

assurance

s from the Libyan government to allow it to work anywhere controlled by Colonel Gaddafi's forces. Now amid signs an attack on Benghazi is imminent, the ICRC has decided it

has no choice but

to withdraw.

President Nicolas Sarkozy of France has called on the United Nations Security Council to

endorse

a draft resolution, authorising a no-fly zone over Libya. A closed session discussing the situation in Libya is underway. Council members are divided over the issue. But Britain, France and Lebanon want to prevent Colonel Gaddafi's air attacks against the opposition forces. Several Arab states have said that they'd be prepared to participate in enforcing the no-fly zone.